Abstract:
One obtains the following description of the $s$–numbers of the vectorial Hankel operators $H_{\varphi}$, $\varphi\in L^{\infty}(E_1,E_2)$.
Theorem 1. {\it $s_n(H_{\varphi})=\inf\{\|H_{\varphi}-H_{\psi}\|:\operatorname{rank} H_{\psi}\le n\}$}.
The theorem generalizes the known Adamyan–Arov–Krein result and in the case $\min(\dim E_1,\dim E_2)<\infty$ has been proved by Ball and Helton. One obtains a constructive description of the Hankel operators of finite rank and one gives a formula for the rank of such an operator.